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Iraq deployed elite troops to the besieged provincial capital of Ramadi on Thursday in hopes of stemming an Islamic State offensive but the city remained surrounded, with Islamic State forces in control of many, if not most, districts, according to witnesses and government officials.

On a recent Saturday evening, Ahmed al-Shabibi relaxed at a hookah café in England with other Iraqi friends – both Shiite and Sunni Muslims – when the conversation turned to the ongoing battle to reclaim the city of Tikrit from Islamic State jihadists.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party emerged from Tuesday’s Israeli election in a virtual tie with the Zionist Union alliance headed by Isaac Herzog, according to exit polls, with each leader claiming he could form the next government.

Even before the vote tallies are complete and Israel’s next prime minister is known, one party in Israel’s fractious political scene already was counting itself victorious: the Joint List, an alliance of four Arab parties that will be the third largest voting bloc in the parliament.

In the first such incident since the U.S.-led coalition began airstrikes against Islamic State extremists last September in Syria, the Syrian government said Tuesday that its air defense system had shot down a U.S. surveillance drone near the northern city of Latakia.

It’s getting harder and more expensive to use public records to hold government officials accountable. Authorities are undermining the laws that are supposed to guarantee citizens’ right to information, turning the right to know into just plain “no.”

The U.S. Air Force confirmed Monday that its aircraft had bombed and destroyed a complex of buildings belonging to al Qaida’s Nusra Front affiliate, bringing to at least three the number of American airstrikes that have targets the terrorist group since bombing in Syria began last year.

Isaac Herzog, the leader of Israel’s Labor party and the main opponent of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in next month’s elections, said Tuesday that if elected he would work to revive peace talks with the Palestinians and curb settlement building in the West Bank.